Story 1

May 25, 2008

THE MILITARY CHAPLAIN

When people think about military chaplains on a war front, many first think of Father Mulcahy, from M*A*S*H. Think again.

There are over fourteen thousand chaplains with the U.S.military-nearly all are Christian with the exception of around 30 Jewish and 15 Muslim clergy. The chaplains have people that assist with their duties, their titles change with the branches of service. You have the enlisted chaplain assistants in the Army, chaplain service support personnel in the Air Force, and religious program specialists in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.

Most chaplains have their own combat kits available they contain worship supplies suitable for field services. The Military chaplains are trained in interdenominational services and typically carry Christian and Jewish versions of the Bible, the New Testament; the book of Mormon; the Queran; prayer rugs, and a portable altar, among other items. One Army chaplain even carries sage in his medicine bag, which he has given a Lakota Sioux Indian to burn for a tribal ritural to cleanse a warrior before battle.

The following quote is one soldier's written response to a disheartening opinion about military chaplains published in the Stars and Stripes (a newspaper that services U.S. troops serving around the world).

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Heroes, soldiers, chaplains

US Army Sgt. Skip Spoerke     Camp Liberty, Iraq
Published in the Stars and Stripes November 18, 2005

In "U.S. shouldn't fund chaplains" (letter, Nov. 14), the writer defaced the military importance of our chaplains by declaring them "biased faith-healers and spiritualists who offer the contradictory words of ancient soothsayers," and saying, "Chaplains can't understand what it's like being a soldier."

I'm not the type who attends religious services every week or prays at every meal; nor have I read the Bible. I do spend time with chaplains as a bugler for memorial services of fallen soldiers.

I arrived in Iraq as a truck driver and about a month later I performed taps at the service of a friend who was killed while escorting a supply convoy. The death was difficult to accept. Because of that and other direct-combat experiences, I have trouble sleeping, relaxing and performing taps. According to the letter writer, I should have been sent to mental health or continued suffering until I return home. Instead, I was referred to a chaplain. I didn't go because I thought it wasn't the soldierly thing to do and I wanted to prove I could handle it on my own.

Well, I couldn't handle it on my own and I talked to a chaplain (pictured left). He helped me without mention of religion. Because of that experience, I saw chaplains for what they really are - soldiers. Our noncombatant chaplains are just as much heroes as any of the best infantry combatants.

Many soldiers feel that praying before missions is extremely important and I've known it to be an honor that a chaplain took the time to pray with the unit. Whether the prayer is of protection, praise, or mission success, even I welcome prayer before missions. Perhaps servicemembers who find group prayers meaningless or unprofessional can find within themselves a tolerance through understanding that mission-oriented prayer is part of our military tradition.

God bless the United States, our military and our chaplains.

Chaplains are trained the same skills a soldier needs, except for how to fire a weapon. They carry no guns, yet U.S. military chaplains are considered a force multiplier in the war theatre. The military expects chaplains to meet the spiritual needs of troops, but it also recognizes their importance in everything from counseling the young soldier crying in their bunk over a letter from home, to being a leveling moral presence among troops trained to fight and kill. They work on or very close to the front. To soldiers under fire, knowing the chaplain is there is a sign that God has not abandoned them. A chaplain's importance to the morale of soldiers is so central that if his courage falters during combat, commanders must immediately replace him, or risk the collapse of the entire unit. What the soldiers in combat are asked to do and to suffer are so extreme that, in many cases, only a belief that God is with them enables them to endure.

Worship services are held in a wide variety of settings. Many of the most popular places are: military chapels, mess halls, ship decks, aircraft hangars, tents, and open field assembly areas, these are all frequently utilized. In combat, services are frequently conducted in small groups with abbreviated orders of worship. Chaplains encourage service members to participate as lay leaders, choir members or musicians, ushers, and eucharistic ministers.

Military chaplains understand that in a fallen and imperfect world, war (to quote Gen. Colin Powell) should be a last resort, but it should be a resort. ("If we're not going to war with a tear in our eyes and our hearts broken, we aren't coming at it from the right place," one chaplain stated.) This is what they tell the troops. They also give them a theological grounding in just-war theory, which attempts to set out conditions under which violence, even killing, is the morally responsible thing to do.

Most troops accept that war, and all it entails, can be just. What they most want from chaplains is the assurance that, come what may, God will be there with them; if they don't come back alive, that the sacrifice will have been worth it; and that there's something better waiting for them on the other side.